A Small Light, Disney+, review: the courage of ordinary people who opposed the Nazis shines through
The sheer, unimaginable evil of the Holocaust makes it a daunting subject for television drama. Steven Spielberg can stun us into silence with a cinematic thunderclap such as Schindler’s List. But TV is an episodic medium that asks us to spend time with characters we care about. How do you do that with an event as unthinkable as Hitler’s attempted eradication of Europe’s Jewish population?
A Small Light (Disney +) comes at the conundrum from a wry and humane angle. This initially bubbly, finally horrific and consistently gripping retelling of the story of Anne Frank focuses on the Austrian-born Dutch woman, Miep Gies, who helped shelter the Frank family during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Much like life in the Third Reich, it starts as one thing, before morphing into something else entirely. First, it's a chatty dramedy indebted to Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Then slowly, inexorably, the horror comes seeping through the walls as the Nazi extermination machine clicks into gear.
Bel Powley, whose Jewish grandmother fled a pogrom in Eastern Europe early in the 20th century, delivers a grounded and witty portrayal of Miep. After a tense opening scene in which her character and Anne Frank’s sister, Margot, navigate a Nazi checkpoint, the action flashes back to 1933. This may be inter-war Amsterdam but Miep's problems feel thoroughly 21st century. She parties too much, can’t find a boyfriend, and struggles to hold down a job in a challenging economy.
Her employment woes are resolved when she answers a job notice posted by Otto Frank – the entrepreneurial, Frankfurt-born father of Anne. He is played by Liev Schreiber, who furnishes the character with a stereotypical German accent.
Schreiber lays on the “das ist gut, ja?” shtick with conspicuous enthusiasm. It’s a choice that clashes with the performance of Powley. As with all the Dutch characters – the ensemble also includes Joe Cole as her fiancé Jan and Eleanor Tomlinson as her air-headed best friend Tess – she speaks in a contemporary English accent that makes her sound as if she’s just wandered in from a Richard Curtis rom-com. Presumably any actual Dutch actors cast in the show would have to pretend to be from Dalston.
The clash of accents is initially distracting. “You really are a pain in the arse,” Miep says at one point and generally conducts herself like an exasperated millennial who has had her morning ruined by a lame TikTok video. You await the moment she turns to the camera and rolls her eyes, Fleabag-style.
The tone darkens when the Nazis arrive and Miep packs the Franks off to a safe house. Anne Frank (Billie Boullet), if largely peripheral in the first two episodes debuting on Disney +, is fleshed out early on as a grumpy tweenager with Billie Eilish vibes. She is annoyed at being forced to hide from the Nazis – but flat-out outraged when she discovers Miep has been lying to her about looking after her cat.
A Small Light is careful to mix hope with the dread. Schreiber and Powley have described the show as a valentine to ordinary people taking a stand against evil. As the softly-spoken Jan, Cole, in particular, is fantastically phlegmatic portraying an everyday person trying to hold on to his decency amid terrible events. There are no happy endings when it comes to Hitler and the Jews. But as a homage to those who tried to make a difference when the lights went out, Disney’s take on the Holocaust shines brightly and bravely.
